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CO-CURRICULAR 17
CCF Biennial Review
Major Robert Hitching,
Contingent Commander
On Tuesday 26 March the CCF
welcomed Old Bancrotian
Lieutenant-Colonel Graham Goodey
MBE as its Reviewing Officer.
As a pupil (1993-2000) Graham was a keen
rugby and hockey player and member of
the CCF. After Bancroft’s he moved to
St John’s College, Cambridge, where he
completed a Master’s degree in Theoretical
Physics. From the Royal Military Academy
Sandhurst he commissioned into 1st
Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment
and has served as a Platoon Commander,
Reconnaissance Platoon Commander,
Adjutant and Company Commander.
He has also been the Aide-de-Camp for
NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander
Europe and is currently the Military
Assistant to one of the Assistant Chiefs of
the Defence Staff in the MOD. He is due to
take command of 1st Battalion The Royal
Anglian Regiment in 2020.
Graham has been a great supporter of the
CCF, coming back as an OB to help out at
camp and to take part in Remembrance Day.
The pupils took great pride in demonstrating
their skills to him as they took part in the
Inter-Section Competition in Epping Forest,
followed by an Apache helicopter
‘fly by’ courtesy of the Reviewing
Officer, parade and prize giving. The
Biennial Review is an opportunity
to showcase the activities of the
CCF, to demonstrate the benefits
cadets derive from membership and
to celebrate their successes. My
thanks to the Officers, Senior NCOs
and Cadets of the Contingent for
ensuring the day was a success and
particular congratulations to those
listed below.
The Winner of the Biennial
Tournament 2019
: 1 Section, led by
Cpl Adam Agbamu
Baker Cup for the best cadet in
the RAF Section:
L/Cpl Ashviny
Ramanathan
Gray Cup for the best cadets in the
Army Section:
Cpl Manav Arora &
L/Cpl Ben Hughes
Greenwood Cup for leadership:
CSM Anissa Patel
Bromfield Cup for the Senior
NCO in the Contingent:
RSM
Martin Prusa
Sea Scouts
Mr Matthew Balchin, Scout Section Leader
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Royal Navy
Recognised Sea Scouts and our Sea Scouts are celebrating
this with a number of traditional RN activities. The 4th
EFS (Bancroft’s) group is one of only 104 Scout groups in
the UK to hold this special RN Recognised status and, in
fact, is one of the oldest. This summer termwe will be
holding our biennial inspection with the Navy where we
will be demonstrating our capabilities to our Royal Navy
Inspecting officer Lt Milligan.
In February, we ran a field gun race on the tennis courts using
Scout sized replicas of the Navy’s traditional heavy field guns in a
race made famous by the Royal Tournament. Inspired by troops
manoeuvring these guns during conflict, the race involves two
competing teams running gun units down each side of a stadium
and manoeuvring the guns back up the central course, navigating
through small gaps, over walls and other obstacles requiring the
teams to dismantle and re-assemble the units several time. Our
recreation of this famous event saw our six patrols racing head to
head in two relay teams. It was a close-run race with each team
taking the lead, lost only at the last moment by a misplaced wheel
pin but was nonetheless great fun to watch and take part.
The Cubs and
Scouts also held
their annual
winter camp
at the end of
February at
the home of
scouting at
Gilwell Park. The
indoor camp
was attended
by over fifty
Cubs, Scouts and
young leaders.
This year’s
activities included
a cub hike,
grass sledding,
geo-caching and woodwork with axes and saws (happily no fingers
were lost). Friday night saw all the Cubs and Scouts tearing round
Gilwell Park at 10pm in the dark, hunting adult and young leaders
who were trying their hardest not to be found despite being covered
in giant glow-sticks. As always, the Scouts got to build their own fires,
using the same fires to cook lunch on the Saturday. After a day full of
activities and some welcome chill-out time, we kept the neighbouring
camps awake while sat around a blazing camp fire with more outdoor
activities on the Sunday morning.